Some known vehicles may include one or more active safety systems that warn a driver of danger that may require immediate attention. For example, the systems may include a forward collision warning system that warns a driver of a potential collision with a moving object such as a vehicle or a pedestrian, or with a non-moving object such as a building. Other active safety systems may include adaptive cruise control, park assist, rear and side object detection, and/or lane departure warning systems.
Some known active safety systems include one or more sensors such as radar, acoustic, and/or optical sensors. For example, park assist, collision warning, and side object detection systems typically include one or more radar sensors that are pointed in forward, rearward, and/or side directions. The radar sensors generate output signals that are used to measure a distance and velocity between the vehicle and other moving and/or non-moving objects. The systems may also compute the relative speeds of the vehicle and the objects and/or angles between the vehicle and the objects.
The active warning systems may trigger audio, visual, and/or haptic alarms to alert the driver if needed. Haptic alarms provide physical feedback such as seat vibration. Usually, the audio alarm is generated using the speakers that are associated with a radio system in the vehicle to reduce cost, although other audio output devices may be used. Additionally, dedicated visual indicators and/or visual indicators that are associated with an instrument panel of the vehicle may also be used.
Although park assist may assist a driver, for example, to safely back into a parking space, the vehicle may be parked too close to an object for full vehicle function. For example, the vehicle may be located too close to a wall, which may interfere with a safe vehicle liftgate opening operation.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a detection system to determine if a vehicle component has sufficient clearance to operate properly.